The Daughter In the Corner

All Alone

Derrick stood up and blocked Jenny from Amara.

“Go back in, Amara.”

Amara held her ground. Pointing to Jenny behind him she hissed. “She has a fiancé; don’t you know that? How could you two still…”

“It’s none of your business,” Derrick replied coldly.

Amara’s eyes widened in disbelief. Derrick had never so much raised his voice to her before. In his texts and calls he was always warm and caring. Tears brimmed at the edge of her eyes; her lips quivered as she fought to hold herself together. “You’ve never… been so…”

Derrick sighed in frustration and ran a large hand through his hair. “Enough with your silly imaginations, Amara. Go back in.”

Hidden from sight, Jenny touched her lips with trembling hands. Her eyes darted left and right.

‘What have I done?!’

Amara’s timely intervention was like pouring a bucket of ice over Jenny’s head, shocking her back to reality. With the rosy haze that shrouded her mind dispersed, Jenny suddenly felt a mixture of disgust and fear. Her ears rang and she could barely make out Derrick and Amara’s voices. Shaking her head left and right she concentrated hard to understand the inaudible chatter.

“…why would you do this to me?! Don’t you know my feelings?”

Jenny scowled.

Derrick’s cold voice responded, “And why do I have to return your feelings?”

“Then you shouldn’t have been so nice to me! You led me on!” Amara sobbed.

Derrick scoffed, “Is being nice leading you on? Honey, you’re too naive.”

Jenny felt her blood-pressure rise. ‘This motherfucker has been playing with us both!?’

Although she didn’t like Amara, this was still her sister by blood. She pushed Derrick from behind with newfound strength that made Derrick stagger a couple steps. He turned with a look of shock.

“Leave. I need to talk to Amara.” Her face was beautiful and cold like that of an ice queen; she left no room for discussion.

Derrick frowned slightly but bent to her will regardless.

“I’ll be inside.”

Picking up his coat that had fallen to the floor, he dusted it off and draped it over his arm before walking past the sobbing Amara without so much as a sideward glance.

The two sisters stood in relative silence only broken by Amara’s sniffling.

Jenny sighed heavily and extended a hand to her sister. “Let’s go in. It’s getting cold.”

Amara slapped Jenny’s hand away, glaring at her.

“You are so f*****g selfish! You have always been such an attention w***e! You have everyone’s love, why did you have to steal Derrick too?”

Jenny frowned. “What…”

But Amara continued to offload all the years of resentment in a hissy fit. “You had Chris and that’s not enough! No, you had to steal my father’s love!”

“He’s my dad too!!”

“But he’s all I have! Every Saturday you would hog him, and everyone ignored me!”

“Hey! You have him six days out of the week!”

“Dad works those six days! I rarely get to see him because he’s always so busy!”

“That sounds like a you problem,” Jenny huffed, unwilling to let Amara guilt trip her.

Amara clenched her fists. “Why are you always so selfish? It wasn’t enough that you destroyed my childhood, now you come after the only man I ever had eyes for! Why are you always trying to take what is mine!?”

Jenny and Amara glared at each other.

Jenny let out a long-drawn-out breath. Now wasn’t a time to fight. They still had guests to entertain, and she wasn’t about to lose face in front of the Sinclairs.

“Amara, look, I didn’t mean to do anything with Derrick. It just happened. I was tipsy and he came out…”

Amara screamed, “You could have walked away!”

“How?! He’s always there wandering under my nose! You can’t imagine how much it tortures me…”

Amara swiped a hand under her damp nose. “Ha!”

“And why are you blaming this on me?! If Derrick had any sense, he should have stayed away from me! I can’t help it if he wants me!”

Amara nostrils flared. “You have Nathan! How are you going to explain things to him!?”

Jenny’s face contorted as she hissed, “He must never know! You hear me!? Don’t you dare tell him or I will make you pay!”

Amara laughed condescendingly. “What? You do something shameless, but you can’t face the consequences?”

Before Amara could react, her face spun to the side and her cheek stung. Raising a hand to her cheek she stared at Jenny in shock. “What the hell!? Why did you hit me?”

Jenny leaned over and poked Amara’s chest roughly. “I don’t care if we are related by blood. If you dare ruin my marriage with Nathan, I will do much worse than slap you. Consider this a warning!”

Jenny smoothed the wrinkles from her dress and fixed her hair before stomping back into the house.

Amara stared after her older sister. When the door slammed shut, Amara burst into tears.

***

“Dad, I’m sorry but I’ll have to get a raincheck on dinner. Something urgent came up.” Jenny walked into the dining room to say goodbye.

Hunter frowned at her sudden departure. Derrick had just come back looking a little flushed, Jenny was about to leave, and Amara was nowhere in sight.

He was about to stand when his mother’s hand shot out and grabbed a hold of his, giving him a small jerk. He looked over and saw the cold look in her eyes.

“Don’t do anything,” she whispered.

Hunter twitched. His mother was a seasoned socialite; she knew every play in the book so she must have been aware of the little liaison just now. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.

Dustin frowned. “That’s fine but where’s Amara? I asked her to go outside to bring you in for dinner. Did you see her?”

Jenny paused for half a second before she broke into a seasoned smile. “I’m not sure, I didn’t see her.”

Hunter growled softly under his breath, shaking his mother’s hand off, he stood up. “I’ll go look for her.”

Without waiting for anyone to respond, he left the dining room and stormed into the empty hall intent on finding his little book fairy. His watery eyes burned as he thought of her all alone in the darkness.

‘I will never let you cry alone again.’